Fearless Kitchen

Recipe: Cornish Hens with Apricot, Port and Balsamic Sauce

Recipe Source: Johnson, Margaret M.  The New Irish Table.  Chronicle Books, San Francisco, 2003 p. 74

On one recent soggy Sunday evening, I was preparing to make our Sunday dinner when the phone rang.  It was our close friends with a spontaneous urge for sushi.  Since nothing drives away the gloom of the soggiest weekend anyone can remember for a very long time like the company of good friends, we of course said yes.  There was a stipulation, though.  I'd planned meals for both Sunday and Monday.  In order to avoid food waste, they had to come over and eat our food on Monday, when I made the dishes for both Sunday and Monday.  They were more than happy to agree to this, since Monday was projected to make Sunday look downright dry.  This was the main course.

The funny thing about this recipe is that while it was the most complicated recipe I was making, and certainly the prettiest recipe I was making, it was easily the least impressive in terms of flavor.  The flavors in this dish are very, very mild.  I like big, bold flavors like those found in the Mediterranean.  As a result, I guess I was a little disappointed in the results.  However, the dish was certainly not bad and tasted just right on a nasty, rainy March day.  The only changes I made were to use turkey bacon instead of pork bacon and Lemony Vegetable Broth instead of chicken broth. 

Cornish Hens with Apricot, Port and Balsamic Sauce (Serves 4; approx. $4.30/serving)

2 Cornish hens, halved down the center

8 slices turkey bacon

4 cups Lemony Vegetable Broth

1/2 cup port

1 cup red wine

4 ounces dried unsulphured apricots, finely chopped

1 tablespoon balsamic vinegar

Kosher salt and black pepper to taste

Equipment:

• 2 saucepans
• Roasting pan

1. Preheat your oven to 400 degrees.
2. Put the hens in the roasting pan with the skin side up. 
3. Sprinkle the halves with pepper and cover with 2 slices of bacon each.
4. Bake 15 minutes. 
5. Reduce the oven temperature to 300 degrees and bake another 15 minutes.
6. Remove from the oven and discard the bacon.  Really.  (You can go ahead and eat the bacon if you want, or feed it to the dog.)
7. Meanwhile, bring the broth to a boil and simmer 10 - 15 minutes.  Reduce to about 1 cup.
8. In the second saucepan, combine the port and wine.  Bring to a boil, then reduce heat and simmer until reduced to about 1/2 cup. 
9. Pour the broth into the wine.  Add the apricots and vinegar.
10. Cook 8 - 10 minutes over low heat.  The sauce should be reduced by 1/3 and should be thickened.  Season with salt and pepper. 
11. Plate the hens on a serving platter.  Drizzle with the sauce, serving the remaining sauce on the side.
12. Serve. 

Recipe: Thrice-Cooked Jerusalem Artichokes

Recipe Source: Lennon, Biddy White and Georgina Campbell.  Irish Food & Cooking.  Anness Publishing, London, 2007 p. 185

I think that sunchoke season is probably just about over, which is really too bad.  These tubers are a great little winter vegetable, making tasty and hearty side dishes.  I made this for my in-laws during their last visit here.  I made a couple of changes to the original recipe.  First and foremost, I omitted the salt to accommodate their dietary preferences.  I don't recommend this change unless strictly necessary; salt is an important part of the chemical reaction in most cooking processes.  Secondly, I omitted the butter, also as an attempt to make the recipe "healthier."  Unfortunately, that resulted in some really sickly-looking tubers.  I had to saute them at the end of the roasting period to get the right texture and an appetizing appearance.  Finally, I seasoned the dusting flour with black pepper and dried basil instead of salt.  This added a certain Mediterranean flavor to what was otherwise a pretty Irish dish. 

Thrice-cooked Jerusalem Artichokes (serves 4; approx. $1.17/serving)

1 1/2 pounds Jerusalem artichokes

1 tablespoon lemon juice

2 tablespoons olive oil

1/2 cup flour

1 tablespoon black pepper

1 tablespoon dried basil

Equipment:

• Bowl
• Shallow bowl or plate
• Roasting pan
• Large saucepan
• Colander 
• Saute pan

1. Preheat your oven to 350 degrees. 
2. Fill the bowl with water and the lemon juice.
3. Peel the sunchokes and trim until they're all about the same size.  Drop the pieces into the acidulated water as you cut them.
4. Fill the saucepan with water and bring to a boil. 
5. Boil 5 minutes and drain.
6. Combine the flour, pepper and basil in the shallow bowl.  Dredge the artichoke pieces in the flour and transfer to the roasting pan.
7. Roast 30 minutes; remove from heat.
8. Heat the oil in the saute pan. 
9. Add the Jerusalem artichokes.  Saute just until the vegetables take on a pleasing appearance.
10. Serve.

Recipe: Turnips Anna Livia

Recipe Source: Johnson, Margaret M.  The New Irish Table.  Chronicle Books, San Francisco, 2003 p. 114

I know I've said this before, but until I started living with my husband I had never consumed a turnip.  I'd seen them before.  I'd ask Uncle Lou (in Produce) what they were, and he'd say "Turnips."  If I asked him what they were for, well, I can't remember what he said, but suffice it to say that they did not figure prominently in his culinary repertoire.  Then I discovered that my husband loves them.  I don't love them, but I don't hate them either, and I'll admit that I do get excited if I find a new way to make them for him. 

This is a side dish.  At least, it's in the side dish section.  It is, however, more than substantial enough to be a main dish.  I made a few changes, as I do.  I didn't have either fresh thyme or fresh rosemary, so I substituted dried thyme and dried tarragon.  I have also found that I can't handle pork these days, so I used turkey bacon.  Do not use turkey bacon.  Use the real stuff, or use beef bacon.  The turkey bacon was a major disappointment in this recipe.  Other than the distressing turkey bacon, I'd say that this dish came out quite well.  My husband really liked it, so that's a good thing. 

Turnips Anna Livia (serves 6; approx. $1.56/serving)

6 tablespoons butter, melted

1/2 cup flour

2 ounces grated Cheddar

Kosher salt and black pepper to taste

1/4 teaspoon thyme

1/4 teaspoon rosemary

1/4 teaspoon nutmeg

2 pounds turnips, peeled and thinly sliced

6 slices bacon (pork or beef, not turkey!) cooked and crumbled

1/4 cup heavy cream

Equipment:

• 2 9" pie plates
• Bowl
• Pie weights (I use dried beans)

1. Preheat your oven to 450.
2. Lubricate one of the pie plates with some of the melted butter.
3. Combine the flour, cheese, salt, pepper, thyme, rosemary and nutmeg in the bowl.
4. Arrange a layer of turnip slices on the bottom of the pie plate.  Top with some of the cheese mixture and then some bacon.  Drizzle with some of the butter.
5. Repeat until all of the ingredients have been used up. 
6. Lubricate a piece of foil and cover the top of the pie plate.
7. Place the second pie plate on top of that and fill with the pie weights. 
8. Press firmly, then bake the entire contraption 40 - 45 minutes or until golden.
9. Remove from oven.  Loosen the edges with a spatula. 
10. Let cool 5 minutes, then invert onto a serving platter and cut into wedges. 

Recipe: Game Pie

Recipe Source: Lennon, Biddy White and Georgina Campbell.  Irish Food and Cooking.  Anness Publishing, London, 2007 p. 164

This is a tasty, hearty dish for Fall.  The original recipe called it "adaptable" and let me tell you that I made sure of that.  I made a few changes, then I made a few more.  I also cooked the finished pie on the Big Green Egg, which gave it a wonderful color and a delicious, rustic, cooked-on-a-wood-fire flavor.  Since it's so adaptable, feel free to use whatever bird (and stewing meat) is available to you, just as I did.  I will warn you that some of the meat can dry out a bit if it gets re-heated a few days later.

Game Pie (serves 8; approx. $2.90/serving

1 duck

1/2 pound stewing lamb

4 ounces beef bacon (you can use pork bacon here if you can eat pork; it's cheaper and better)

4 ounces butter

2 onions, finely chopped

5 garlic cloves, crushed

1 tablespoon flour

1/4 cup duck stock

2 tablespoons tomato paste

1 tablespoon chopped fresh parsley

1/4 teaspoon grated lemon peel

1 tablespoon lingonberry jelly (redcurrant or rowan would be more appropriate, but I had lingonberry open and taking up space in the fridge.)

4 ounces Baby Bella mushrooms, chopped

1 pinch ground nutmeg

1 pinch ground cloves

8 ounces flour

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon lemon juice

1/2 cup butter, cut into "walnut-sized" pieces

Equipment:

• Food processor
• Rolling pin
• Large, deep pie plate
• Deep sauteuse or pot
• Big Green Egg (optional; this is the best way to cook it, but you can certainly do it in the oven and do it well, too.)

1. Combine the flour, salt, lemon juice and butter in the food processor.
2. Add just enough iced water that the ingredients come together.
3. Turn the mixture out onto a floured surface and roll out into a rectangle. 
4. Fold the rectangle into thirds, in on itself, and roll it out again.
5. Repeat step 4 three more times, then refrigerate. 
6. Remove the meat from the duck bones.  This will be kind of messy.  Discard the skin and fat and reserve the carcass for making stock (possibly the same stock you use in this dish!)
7. Slice the meat you've just carved from the duck into thin slices and set aside. 
8. Slice the stewing lamb into thin strips. 
9. Slice the bacon into thin strips as well. 
10. In the deep saute pan, cook the bacon until the fat runs. 
11. Add the butter.
12. When the butter melts, add the duck and lamb meat.  Brown the meats in the fats, in batches if need be, and set aside.
13. Cook the onions and garlic in the fat over medium heat.  Remove and set aside.
14. Stir the flour carefully into the remaining fat and cook 1 - 2 minutes.
15. Add the stock and make it into a fairly thin gravy.
16. Add the tomato paste, parsley, lemon peel and jelly along with the mushrooms.
17. Season to taste with the nutmeg and cloves. 
18. Return the meats to the pan and mix well.
19. Turn the mixture out into the deep pie plate. 
20. Preheat your Big Green Egg or oven to 425.
21. Top the pie with the dough you prepared in steps 1 - 5.  The crust should overhang the pie enough to make a seal with the scraps.  Do so. 
22. Glaze the top of the pie in whatever way seems best to you - I used milk, you can use egg if you like.
23. Bake 20 minutes at 425, then reduce the heat and bake at 300 for 1 1/2 hours. 
24. Serve hot. 

Recipe: Smoked Salmon and Cucumber Salad

Recipe Source: Lennon, Biddy White and Georgina Campbell.  Irish Food and Cooking.  Anness Publishing, London, 2007 p. 102

I made this for a recent Sunday open house.  I chose this recipe because it involved fish, and fish is good for your brain.  Also, smoked fish always seems kind of elegant, I'm not really sure why.  It was also a very easy dish that could be assembled quickly.  All of these factors made this a Very Good Dish under the circumstances. 

I made a few changes, of course.  First, I doubled the amount.  Second, I decreased the amount of oil in the dressing.  Third, I substituted smoked salmon for smoked trout.  I'd sent my husband to the market to get the smoked fish and that's what his preferred market had.  I did serve it with bread, but the bread will be posted later. 

Smoked Salmon and Cucumber Salad (serves 12; approx. $0.75/serving)

2 cucumbers, peeled and thinly sliced

1 package smoked salmon

2 tablespoons olive oil

2 tablespoons white wine vinegar

1 tablespoon chopped fresh dill

Kosher salt and black pepper to taste

Equipment:

• You will need nothing arcane for this recipe

1. Whisk the oil and vinegar together with vigor, making an emulsion. 
2. Add the dill.
3. Cut the smoked salmon into bite-sized pieces. 
4. Arrange the salmon and cucumbers on a serving dish and sprinkle with the dressing. 
5. Season to taste and serve. 

Recipe: Irish Soda Bread

Recipe Source: Stewart, Martha.  "From My Home to Yours."  Martha Stewart Living, number 184, March 2009 p. 26.  The original version can be found online here. 

Okay, I know a couple of things might seem a little odd about this post.  First, the recipe for Irish soda bread is from Martha Stewart, who is not Irish.  Second, the photo bears very little resemblance to the soda breads you find in the grocery stores (at least, the stores around here) this time of year.  It looks a lot more like an oatmeal-raisin cookie gone horribly, horribly awry.  That said, this bread was very flavorful and tasty.  The addition of bran, which gives it its distinctive color and texture, adds a certain nutty quality to the bread, and adds fiber to boot.  I didn't make changes to the recipe. 

Irish Soda Bread (serves 10; approx. $0.53/serving)

1 1/3 cups whole milk

1/3 cup apple cider vinegar

3 cups all-purpose flour

2 1/2 teaspoons kosher salt

1 teaspoon baking powder

1 teaspoon baking soda

2 ounces unsalted butter, cut into small pieces

1 cup wheat bran

1/4 cup caraway seeds

1 cup raisins

Equipment:

• Large bowl
• Small bowl
• Aluminum foil or parchment paper
• Baking sheet

1. Preheat oven to 350.
2. Line the baking sheet with aluminum foil or parchment paper.  I sprayed my aluminum foil with non-stick spray; I'm not sure that it was really needed.
3. In the small bowl, mix the milk and vinegar.  Let stand five minutes.
4. In the large bowl, whisk together flour, salt, baking powder and baking soda.
5. Use your hands, or a pastry cutter if you must, to add the butter.  Mix (cut? rub? blend?) until the mixture resembles coarse bread crumbs.
6. Add the bran, caraway seeds and raisins.  Stir to distribute.
7. Pour the milk mixture into the flour.  Stir until the dough just holds together.  It will be very sticky.
8. Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured surface.  Pat and press it into a round loaf shape. 
9. Transfer the loaf onto the prepared baking sheet.  Cut a deep cross in the top.
10. Bake 70 minutes, rotating halfway through.
11. Let it cool.
12. Eat it. 

Recipe: Bacon and Leek Tart

Recipe Source: Lennon, Biddy White and Georgina Campbell.  Irish Food & Cooking.  Anness Publishing, London, 2007 p. 110

St. Patrick's Day is almost upon us again.  I wanted to make something Irish in honor of the day, but I didn't want to do the typical dishes Americans usually prepare for the day.  Beef and stout stew?  It's not my favorite, and it seems so stereotypical.  Corned beef and cabbage?  There just aren't enough Es in "eeuw" to convey my revulsion.  Besides, my extensive research (watching reruns of Good Eats on the Food Network) has revealed that corned beef and cabbage is a New York thing, not a traditional dish in Ireland at all.  (Those readers in Ireland can correct me on the authenticity of the dish; the taste is an individual matter.)  So I went to my one resource for Irish food, and I found this.  I'd been wanting to make it for a while.  It had been on my calendar.  It just kept getting pushed farther and farther back.  So I decided to make it.

I didn't make a whole lot of changes to this recipe.  I volunteered at the last minute to make a dish to serve 100 people at a potluck (more on that another day), and I was frankly too tired to be very creative with this!  I did look at the spice quotient.  "Mild" mustard?  We don't even keep such a thing on hand.  Horseradish mustard is good enough for everything else in my kitchen, it was good enough for this.  A "pinch" of cayenne pepper?  I don't even recognize that quantity.  It got a quarter teaspoon.  The result was a very tasty, very filling tart.  They're listed as a first course or appetizer, but this was our main meal and it served us very well.  In case the words "horseradish" and "cayenne" are a little offputting, the spice is noticeable but not even remotely overpowering. 

Bacon and Leek Tart (serves 6; approx. $1.94/tart)

10 ounces all-purpose flour

3/4 cup butter

2 egg yolks

3 tablespoons cold water (more may be needed)

8 ounces fatty bacon, diced

4 leeks, cleaned and sliced

6 eggs

1/2 cup cream cheese

1 tablespoon horseradish mustard

1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper

Kosher salt and black pepper to taste

Equipment:

• 6 4" tartlet pans, the kind with the false bottom
• Bowl
• Skillet
• Baking sheet
• Aluminum foil
• Plastic wrap or zip-top bag
• Pie weights or dried beans

1. Sift the flour and salt into the bowl.
2. Cut the butter into pieces and rub into the flour with your hands.  Rub until the mixture resembles bread crumbs.
3. Add the egg yolks and just enough water to bring the dough together.  Three tablespoons is a good starting point, but I needed to add half again as much.  
4. Mix the dough together, wrap in plastic wrap and refrigerate 30 minutes.
5. Preheat your oven to 400 degrees.  
6. Divide the dough into six pieces.  Press each piece into a tart pan, then dock the crust with a fork or something.  
7. Line the crusts with the tin foil and fill with pie weights or beans.  (I use beans.)
8. Bake 15 - 20 minutes, until golden.
9. Meanwhile, cook the bacon in the skillet until crispy.
10. Add the leeks and cook another 3 - 4 minutes, softening the leeks.  Note that the speed with which the softening happens depends partially on how thin you slice the leeks.
11. In the bowl, beat the eggs, cream cheese, mustard, cayenne pepper and seasoning to taste.
12. Add the leeks and bacon and mix to combine.
13. Remove the foil and baking beans from the tartlet cases.  Pour in the filling and bake 35 - 40 minutes.  
14. Plate and serve.   

Recipe: Fish Soup

Recipe Source: Lennon, Biddy White and Georgina Campbell.  Irish Food and Cooking.  Anness Publishing, London, 2007 p. 90. 

I've been dying to make this recipe for a while now.  For whatever reason, the timing was just never quite right.  Well, I know what the reason is.  I wanted to use the mussels, and I won't buy them if I'm not going to use them that day.  Well, I finally got a day that was right for mussels AND when I knew for sure I'd be cooking, and I must say that it was definitely worth the wait. 

I made a few changes, naturally.  I increased the garlic.  Due to an inopportune sneeze, the dash of tobasco turned into a tablespoon of Thai hot chile sauce.  I used canned tomatoes.  I plain forgot about the mushrooms, so I used some dried Chinese mushrooms instead.  I used soy milk for the milk because that's what I had on hand, and I skipped the fresh white fish.  I didn't have another use in mind for leftover smoked fish or leftover mussels, and since both items came in larger sizes than I needed I decided to use them in place of the fresh white fish. 

Fish Soup (serves 4; approx. $4.36/serving)

2 tablespoons butter

1 onion, finely chopped

3 tablespoons minced jarred garlic

1 red bell pepper, seeded and chopped

Kosher salt and black pepper to taste

1/2 teaspoon sugar

1 tablespoon Thai chile sauce

1/4 cup all-purpose flour

2 1/2 cups fish stock

1 14-ounce can diced tomatoes, with juices

1 package Chinese dried mushrooms, soaked in hot water 30 minutes

1 1/4 cups soy milk

7 ounces smoked mackerel, cut into bitesized chunks

2 lb mussels, cleaned

Equipment:

• Large pot

1. Melt the butter in the pot over medium heat.
2. Sweat the onion and garlic in the melted butter.  They should be softened but not browned.
3. Add the red pepper and season with kosher salt and black pepper, the sugar and the chile sauce.
4. Sprinkle the flour over the mixture and cook gently for 2 minutes.
5. Stir in the stock gradually and add the tomatoes (with their juices) and the mushrooms (discard the soaking water.)
6. Bring to a boil over medium heat. 
7. Stir well and reduce the heat.  Simmer gently until the vegetables are soft.  This didn't take a huge amount of time for me.
8. Add the milk and return to a boil.
9. Add the smoked mackerel and simmer 3 minutes.
10. Add the mussels and cook another 4 minutes.  Discard any mussels that remain closed.
11. Serve and enjoy. 

Recipe: Braised Swiss Chard

Recipe Source: White, Biddy Lennon with Georgina Cambpell.  Irish Food & Cooking.  Anness Publishing Ltd., London, 2004 p. 179

 

I've developed a kind of compulsion when it comes to vegetables: there must be some on the table, and there must be a choice of vegetables on the table.  This is not an option.  I try to tone it down, since we don't need five dishes on the table for two people, but I get very twitchy if I don't have that option.  For a recent impromptu dinner party, even though we were already having colcannon, I decided to add some Swiss chard to the mix.  While I had initially decided to make a spicy chard dish, since our guest is sensitive to spice I switched it to the other option: an Irish Swiss chard dish, with nary a chili pepper in sight.  It was really easy, and cooked up very quickly. 

 

I hardly changed any of the recipe.  I added a little bit more nutmeg than originally called for, and I didn't grease the pan before cooking.  I wound up really liking this dish.  I've never used much nutmeg.  I'm always surprised to find it in the spice cabinet, since I'm sure I've never purchased it.  I expect that will change now that I've had a chance to see it used in such a fun way. 

 

Braised Swiss Chard (serves 4, approx. $1.03/serving)

2 bunches Swiss chard

1 tablespoon butter

1/4 teaspoon nutmeg

Equipment:

• Good knife
• Large pan with a lid

1. Remove the stalks from the Swiss chard and reserve the stalks for another use.
2. Wash the leaves well, but do not spin dry.
3. Heat the pan over medium heat.
4. Lift the leaves, with water still onto them, into the pan.
5. Cover with the lid and cook for 3 - 5 minutes. 
6. Remove the chard from the pan. 
7. Add the butter and nutmeg to the liquid in the bottom of the pan. 
8. When the butter is melted, pour the sauce over the chard and serve immediately. 

Book Review: Irish Food & Cooking

Lennon, Biddy White and Georgina Campbell.  Irish Food and Cooking.  Anness Publishing Ltd, 2004.

 

Irish food doesn't have a great reputation here in the States, despite the fact that so much of our population can reckon at least part of its descent from the Emerald Isle.  As a case in point, when I was still an accountant, I had a coworker whose ancestry was extremely Irish and he was very, very proud of that fact.  His office was covered in shamrocks, he brought in St. Patrick's Day gifts for everyone, he was just very into being Irish.  When I told him that I'd bought this book, he made a face.  "Why?" was his only response, a comment echoed by so many others I've spoken to.  This is really a shame, because through this book I've learned not only that Irish food consists of more than boiled potatoes, boiled cabbage and boiled salted beef, but that Irish food can be very good indeed. 

 

Don't get me wrong.  The book includes a whole lot of potatoes, and cabbage is a not-uncommon ingredient.  However, as I discovered by reading the front section on the Irish Pantry, this is not the whole of Irish cuisine.  I would never have known about the variety of meats regularly consumed in Ireland, or how much a part of daily cuisine dairy products really are (honestly, I've never seen so much butter in my life!) The book, like all of the Hermes House imprint, gives very detailed, very easy-to-follow instructions and illustrates every recipe.  The book even offers complete nutritional information at the bottom of each recipe, although for some of the heavier offerings you might wish that they hadn't. 

 

There weren't any real strong drawbacks to this book, besides the frequent inclusion of cabbage.  I could wish that it was a little thicker.  On the whole, I would strongly recommend this book to anyone with an interest in Irish cuisine. 

 

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